The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1887-12-11


piled at once: Some happily Surviving element
Of manhood moved him to the former.
let Us have more of this" said he. his
foot once more upon the step '91o back to
where came from.
He had avoided the name Of any destination,
for there was now quite a little band of railway
folk about the cab. and he still kept an eve on
the court of justice. and iabored to avoid con-
centric evidence. But here again the fatal jar
vev outmanGuvered him.
Back to the LudgeF cried he, in shrill tones
of protest.
Drive on at once!" roared John, and slammed
the door behind him, SO that the crazy chariot
rocked and jingled,
Forth truudled the cab into the Christmas
streets. the fare within plunged in the darkness
OF a despair that neigh bored on Inconsistencies,
the driver on the box 6igesting his rebuke and
his customers duplicity; | would not be thought
to put the pair in competition; Johns case was
out of all parallel But the cabman, too is
worth the sympathy of the judicous; for be
fellow of genuine kindness and high sense
of personal dignity incensed by drink; and his
advances had been cruelty and publicly rebuffed.
AS he drove, therefore, he counted his wrongs,
and thlrsted for sympathy and drink. Now, 1t
CHANGED be had friend, publican. IN Queens
ferry street, from whom. in view of the sacred
ness OF the occasion. he thought he might ex-
tract dram. Queensferry street lies
thing of the direct road to Murray field But
then there is the billy cross-road that passed by
the valley of Leith and the Dean cemetery and
Queensferry street Is on the way to that What
was to hinder the cabmau, since his horse
dumb, from choosing the cross road and calling
on MS friend IN passingE so 1t WIS decided;
and the charioteer, alread somewhat Modified,
turned aside his horse to the right.
John. mean while. collapsed, mis- chin sunk
upon his chest, his mind in allegiance. The
smell OF the cab was still family present to his
senses, and certain ieaden chill about his
feet all else mad disappeared in one vast op-
preston of calamity and physical faintness. 1t
was drawing on To noon-two and twenty hours
since he had broken bread; in the interval, he
had suffered fortunes of sorrow and alarm, and
had been partly tipsy; and though 1t was i'm
NOS Ell tlG m ho cln ruha eah
stopned, and the cabman thrust his head into
the window his attention had to be recalled
from the depths of vacancy
If you'll no stand me a dram" said the driv-
er, with well merited severity of tone and
manner, Il dare say yen have no objections to
my taking one myself"
''Yes-no-do what you like" retur ned John;
and then as be watched his tormentor mount
the stairs, and enter the whisky shop, there
Heated into his mind sense OF something
long ago familiar. At that he started fully
awake, and stared at the shop-fronts. Yes. he
knew the M but when? and howl Long since,
be thought; and then. casting his eye through
the front glass. which had been recently occnd-
ed by the figure of the jarvey, he beheld the
tree-tops OF the rooKery in Randolph Crescent.
He wac close TO Monochrome. where he had
thought, at that hour, to be sitting in the we'll
rem en- bered drawing room in friendly converse;
and, instsad-
II was his first impulse to drop into the bot
tom of the cal b; his next. to cover his face with
his hands. So he sat, while the cabman toasted
the publican. and the publican toasted the cab
man. and both reviewed the affairs of the ma
ton; so he still sat, when his master condescend-
ed 70 return, and drive off at last down hill,
along tho curve of Lynsdoeh Place but even so
sitting, as he passed the end of his fathers
street. he took one glance from between shield
ing fingers, and beheld doctors carriage at the
door.
We'll. just so,' thought he; sI'll have killed
my fatheri And this Christmas day."
If Mr.. Nicholson died, il was down this same
road he must journey to the erave and down
this 70 ad. on the same errand, his wife had pro-
ceeded him years before; and many other lead
ing citizens, with the proper trapping and at
tendance OF the end. And now. IN that frosty.
Nl-suelling, seraw-cacpeted and ragged cushioned
cab, with his breath congealing the glasses,
where else was John himself advancing tor
The thought stirred his imagination, which
began to manufacture many thousand pictures
bright and feeting, like the shapes in a kaleido-
scope; and now he saw himself, rudy and COM
forted. sliding in the gutter, and, again, little
woebegone, bored urchin tricked forth in Grape
and weepers. descending this same bill at the
foots pace OF mourning coaches. his mothers
body just preceding him; and yet again. his
fancy. running far IN front, showed him his des-
tination--now standing solitary in the low sun
shine. with the sparows hopping on the threshold
and the dead man within staring at the roof
and now, with sudden change. thronged
about with whits-faced manipulating neigh
bors, the doctor bursting through their midst
and fixing his stethoscope as ne went the police
man shaking a sag6cious head beside the body
1t was to this he feared he was driving; in the
midst of this he himself arrive; heard
himself stammer faint explanations, and felt
the hand of the constable upon his shoulder.
Heavens. how he wished he bad played the
manlier part; how he despised himself that he
had fed that fatal neighbourhood when all was
quiet. and should now be- tamey travelling back
when 1t was thrcnging with avengers.
Any strong degree of passion lends, even to
the dullest, the forces of the imagination. And
now he dwelt' on what vas probably
awaiting him at the END, It this distresstul
Crive-John, who saw things little, rememb ered
them less, and could rot have described them at
ali. beheld in his minds eye the garden of the
Lodge. detailed as in map; he went to aud fro
IN 1t, feeding his terrors; he saw the holes, the
snowy borders, the paths where ne had sought
Alan, the high, conventual walls, the shut door
what! WAS the door shut? Az. truly, he had
shut it-shut in his money, his escape, his future
lfe-sbut it with these bands, and none could
open IT, He heard the snap of the spring
lock like something bursting in his brain. and
sat astonished.
And then be woke again, terror Earring through
his vtals. This time to be idle: he must
be up and doing, he must think Once at tho
end of this ridiculous cruise once at the Lodge
door, there would be nothing for it but to turn
the cab and tyundle back again. Why, then, go
so far! why add another feature of suspicion to
a case already so suggestive! why not turn at
oncel Il easy say, turn: but whitherl
He had nowhere now to go to-: he could never
he saw it in letters of blood-he could never
pay that cab; be saddled with that cab for
ever q that cahi his soul yearned and burned.
and his bowels sounded to be rid of IL. He for
got all other cares He must first quit himself
of this ;ll-smslline vehicle and of the human
beast that guided it--frst do that; do that at
least do that at once.
And just then the cab suddenly stopped, and
there was his prosecutor rapping on the front
glass, Ike with child of some intelligence.
John let 1t down. and beheld the portwine
countenance infamed with intellectual triumph
81 ken wha We arei" cried the husky voice.
81 mind ye You're NICHOLSON 1 drove
VS. to Hermlston to a Christmas party. and We
came back the box. and let ye drive"
1t was fact. John knew the man; they had
been even friends. His enemy, he now remem-
bered. was fellow of great good narure-end-
less good nature-with boy; why not with
man? Why not appeal to his better sides He
gTasped at the new hore.
''Great Scott and you did, ne cried, as if IN
transport OF delight, his sounding false in his
ears. well, if that's so I've something to
say TO you. I'll just get out. l guess. Where
we, anyway
The driver had fiuttered his ticket in the eyes
oe the branch toll-keeper. and they
brought TO on the highest and most solitary part
of the by-road On the left, a row of feld-side
trees beshaded it; on the right it was shaded by
naked fallows, undulating downhin to the